1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates a vehicle air bag system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a vehicle air bag system that covers the front pillars of the vehicle body.
2. Background Information
The air bag system proposed in Laid-Open Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-281671 has an air bag module stored inside the front pillar such that the air bag inflates over the front surface of the front pillar. The air bag system proposed in Laid-Open Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-79859 has an air bag located in the gap between the rear end edge of the engine hood and the front windshield such that the air bag inflates along the entire the rear end edge of the engine hood in the transverse direction.
In view of the above, there exists a need for an air bag system which is an improvement over the above-mentioned prior art. This invention addresses this need in the prior art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.
It has been determined from the disclosure of from the former invention, in which the air bag module is stored inside the front pillar, has the following drawbacks: the air bag module installability is poor because the closed cross sectional area of the front pillar is limited, the structure becomes complex, and the front pillar becomes larger making visibility poor.
It has been determined from the disclosure of from the latter invention is structured so that the air bag inflates and unfolds along the entire rear end edge of the engine hood in the transverse direction. Consequently, the air bag module is large and its installability is poor. Furthermore, such a structure is disadvantageous in terms of cost and the air bag cannot cover the entire front surface of the front pillar from the base part to the upper end part.
The present invention provides a vehicle air bag system that can inflate and unfold the air bag so as to cover the entire region reaching from the base part to the upper end part of the front side of the front pillar without harming the installability of the air bag module.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a vehicle air bag system is provided with a collision detection device, a hood pop-up device and an air bag module. The collision detection device produces a detection signal upon detection of a collision between a front of a vehicle and an obstacle. The hood pop-up device is arranged under a rear end part of an engine hood to move up the rear end part of the engine hood when actuated based on the detection signal from the collision detection device. The air bag module that is arranged in a cowl top under the rear end part of the engine hood. The air bag module has an air bag that is inflated to expand out toward a front windshield from between the cowl top and the rear end part of the engine hood when the hood pop-up device is actuated. The air bag is configured to cover a region ranging from a base part to an upper end part of a front surface of a front pillar.
These and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses a preferred embodiment of the present invention.